Senators fall just short of a great homestead

Ottawa Senators goalie Craig Anderson and Ryan Dzingel can only look on as Buffalo Sabres centre Sam Reinhart scores behind Anderson into the net during third period NHL action Saturday November 5, 2016 in Ottawa.Adrian Wyld / THE CANADIAN PRESS

Before the Ottawa Senators faced the Buffalo Sabres Saturday, coach Guy Boucher summed up what was at stake.

With a victory, he said, the Senators would turn what had already been a “good” homestand into a “great” homestand.

Ultimately, the Senators can thank old friend Robin Lehner for preventing the clean sweep of the three games from happening. Lehner was the difference in Buffalo’s 2-1 victory, stealing away a game that would have gone the Senators way on most nights.

So, the Senators are left with mixed emotions as they prepare for road games in Nashville Tuesday and a rematch against the Sabres in Buffalo on Wednesday.

With a 7-4-0 record, they’re in solid shape, but after letting a 1-0 third-period lead get away, the loss was a reminder about taking nothing for granted.

“We know how small the margins are going to be between winning and losing and (Saturday) was a perfect example of that,” said captain Erik Karlsson.

“We definitely shouldn’t lose the game, allowing only two goals. But we have to keep our heads high. It was a good stint at home.”

Chief among the early-season highlights has been the goaltending.

Somehow, Craig Anderson has kept his mind from wandering to his wife’s cancer diagnosis during games.

Even after losing Saturday, he has stopped 122 of 125 shots in his past four games. He’s tied for third in the NHL with six wins and his save percentage of .930 ranks sixth among goaltenders that have played more than five games.

The new backup, Mike Condon, pitched a 27-save shutout over Vancouver in his Senators debut.

Anderson and Condon are expected to split the action on the road trip.

As a whole, the skaters have made life much easier on their netminders. The Senators have allowed an average of 29.7 shots against per game, 13th best in the NHL. Last season, they allowed 32.8 shots every night, 24th overall.

Part of the improvement is due to improved penalty killing, where Chris Kelly, Tom Pyatt and Jean-Gabriel Pageau have excelled.

“It’s all the details we’ve worked on since the start of the year,” said Pageau. “Blocking shots, getting sticks on pucks. That’s part of hockey, everyone doing all the small details.”

Flip the coin, however, and Pageau is also a symbol of the club’s early-season offensive frustrations. After repeatedly being stoned by Lehner Saturday, he’s still stuck on one goal. Mark Stone and Derick Brassard have also scored only once each. Brassard is among those passing up scoring opportunities, a sign of being in a drought. If the goaltending dips even slightly, the club’s average of 2.55 goals per game won’t be enough for consistent winning.

A key to kick-starting the offence would be an improved power play, which is limping along at only 12.9%, 23rdin the league. If the Senators had converted on a four-minute power play late in the third period Saturday, we might be talking about the club taking a four-game winning streak into Nashville.

“It was obviously not one of our best,” said Mike Hoffman. “We couldn’t get set up and everybody was in wrong positions.”

At the very least, Stone says, the club needs to generate momentum from man-advantage situations. It’s early yet, but the club’s long-standing inability to produce on the power play at home — they’ve gone 2-for-21 so far — is repeating itself.

All in all, it has been a comfortable start, as the Senators have shown composure in the types of situations that did them in a year ago. The Senators have yet to lose two games in a row. Until the tight defeat to Buffalo, the Senators were 4-0 in one-goal games.

“That could have easily been a (win) and we would be 8-3 and we would go ‘wow’, but that’s where we have to be smart about how we evaluate things,” said Boucher. “To be 7-4, with the injuries we’ve had and all the adversity the players have had to be battle, I have a lot of respect for the players and the progression since the beginning of the year.”

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